Yesterday I decided that I’d take my level 15 monk and run some LFG dungeons as a healer. I love healing in groups and raids and my character has lots of heirloom so at these levels it’s pretty simple. I don’t expect perfection from any group that I end up in – but it would sure make things a lot easier if people just had some patience. The first dungeon run I did went flawlessly. No problems, everyone followed the tank, smooth as could be. The second dungeon was a different story. We were in Wailing Caverns, and there was myself (monk healer), a tank (paladin), a hunter, rogue, and priest.
The hunter decided to take it upon themselves to tank and they ran every place that the actual tank was not. The actual tank didn’t know his way around the dungeon, so he was backtracking and just running where ever he wanted. Everyone else followed one of these other people but no one followed just one of them so the group was pretty split. I followed the tank.
As a healer this makes for an exceptionally stressful experience. I can’t heal anyone who isn’t in range. If you’re going to run and pull the entire dungeon (especially as a DPS class) and expect me to keep you alive – well, that’s just not going to happen. We managed through most of the dungeon without incident despite the mass pullings in all directions but eventually the hunter pulled one too many and they ended up dying.
I can’t resurrect in combat. My only option is to wait until we’re out of combat, and then cast it. The hunter had no patience for this and decided to leave the instance instead as soon as I told him that I couldn’t rez until after combat had ended. Since everyone kept pulling (and were finally in range) this put me in combat a lot. The tank then decided to run away from the rest of the group while we tried to trail after him and after another failed pull because people just couldn’t work together I decided to cut my losses and left the group.
I don’t like to leave groups, and like I said at the beginning I don’t expect perfection or even “good” game play. I don’t expect a new player to know the dungeons inside and out, and I don’t groan if someone can’t keep up optimal DPS. I will always complain if someone doesn’t have the patience to ensure their survival in a timely fashion. Don’t run away from your healers. It makes things difficult. Try to stick with your tanks. It makes things easier. Those types of tips are things people should keep in mind. If you’re new, unsure, or returning, just speak up. Yes, there are some less-than-kind people out there who may grief you if you speak up, but honestly you’ll find more understanding people than not.
I’ve done a LOT of pick up groups over the years so these types of situations don’t bother me long term and I was back to LFG later in the evening on my druid instead (until the DDoS stuff happened, but that’s a whole other post) where the runs went pretty well. My Dalaran characters are sitting in a comfortable spot. The deathknight is 60, druid is 27, warrior is 14, and monk is 18. I’m really hoping that some folks from Zero Commitment will be into dungeon runs this weekend, even if I have to tank them myself. We’ll see how that goes.
As always, happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!
stargrace 
